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Baconfest

Proponents of all things porcine received an answer to their prayers on March 23 as bacon, bacon and more bacon descended on Keiner Plaza for Baconfest St. Louis. The brainchild of bacon enthusiasts Matthew Willer and Matthew Guillot, Baconfest was a porkapalooza featuring bacon-inspired food and drinks, live music and bacon paraphernalia. The pièce de résistance of the free, all-day festival was Willer and Guillot's attempt at Guinness World Record glory — a 500-pound pork behemoth called the hog log. This 768,000-calorie, 50-foot-long (that's about one and a half school buses) porkenstein consisted of a lattice of handwoven bacon topped with a dry rub, Italian sausage, mounds of cooked bacon strips and a dousing of Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce, all rolled up sushi style and cooked in a custom-built smoker under the masterful direction of River City Casino and Lumière Place executive chef John Johnson. Could we think of a better reason to celebrate? Well, perhaps an "all-clear" from the cardiologist after attending the fest.